My friends at the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) asked me to contribute an essay as part of a series of perspective pieces they’re curating for their Substack on the subject of Pride.
Enjoying your thought-provoking essays and the equally thought-provoking comments that follow. Since the era of social media, have come to dread Pride MONTH. An entire freaking month of queer (I use the word - not asking you to do so.) content and all the self-righteous backlash in response. A day? Great. A month? No. Wretched excess. It's exhausting.
It's excessive, especially considering how ubiquitous LGBT+ culture is right now in the mainstream--the desired visibility and representation has been achieved, in spades. The festival of kink that passes now for Pride Month isn't what Pride ever was for my generation--it was about expressing love, openly and in large numbers, in daylight--the freedom to do that was what we were proud of. We were part of the human race and got a parade to boot.
So much of the negative reaction to your post can be paraphrased into "I was the superior human being who gifted you my tolerance and now I am the superior human being who rescinds that tolerance." In the FAIR crowd, I'd noticed a few people displaying this kind of arrogance but I haven't seen it so displayed so obviously until now.
Gay and Lesbian “liberation” expired around 1997, to be replaced with the noxious term “pride”.
Gay and Lesbian liberation was, is, and will always be about sex, it’s unavoidable because that’s the defining event which was legally punished, and still is.
It is an adult celebration in that it is about adults having the ability to have sex (eventually under contract of marriage) without state control.
Liberation is eroding from within.
Declaration of sex preference is social grounds for job loss, ostracism, and possibly in Canada or US arrest. This was engineered and supported by the Pride front, not the liberation front.
Objecting to forced heterosexual sex is grounds for denying lesbians right of association. This was engineered also by the Pride front, not the liberation front.
Male and female sex mimicry has nothing to do with lesbian or gay sex, yet this part of Pride front is driving all narratives.
That’s the reality.
1950’s level punishment for declaring one’s self gay or lesbian, and having the temerity to demand association on that basis.
Pride events are the the Cuckoo’s egg - pretending to be the real child of liberation, bigger and more aggressive, killing the children of the host and replacing them entirely in the end.
I appreciated your essay on the FAIR Substack. As a hetero woman, I often wonder what my old LGBA college friends from the 90s think of today's movement. I've told my sons repeatedly that they live in a completely different world than I did.
I usually avoid the comments section, so I hadn't noticed the vitriol. I am sad when I read responses like the ones you received.
This entry was recommended to me. Thank you for writing both posts.
I am beyond dismayed at the comments on your FAIR Substack article. I am shocked. Perhaps I am naive. I've been involved with FAIR since the summer of 2021. I can't believe those comments came from actual FAIR members. Although I do know some peripheral FAIR folks did not like my involvement in the organization as a trans man. Sadly, there may now be splintering in the heterodox world along certain demarcations. Perhaps again it is my naivety or absence on social media that did not recognize this phenomenon. I truly love your witty and catty articles. Keep it up. It brings levity into the world!
Zander, FAIR and any other organization you contribute to, are lucky to have you! Listen: Carrie Fisher said it best. The truth will set you free…but first it will piss you off! Better to allow folks to expose their own biases, in my opinion. When you lift the rock, sometimes the creepy crawlies come out and I say better out than in.
“some of the… comments made me suddenly and vividly aware, after many years, that certain kinds of hate and hateful narratives are lurking just below the surface, and can be so easily conjured up”:
I see increasing numbers of antisemites and homophobes and racists and misogynists popping up in heterodox spaces. I guess they think they can find some respectability there. But there’s nothing respectable about making wild generalizations about diverse groups of people and expressing negative emotions about people you’ve never met and do not know.
We may have had four years of witnessing how vile “woke” can be, but my sense is that we are about to discover how much worse “anti-woke” can be, especially if 45 returns as 47…
We missed you on the FAIR in the Arts Townhall last night Jamie.
As a far right conservative who mostly reads religious and right tilting political commentary, your FAIR piece on Pride helped me to understand the history of a movement that I have almost exclusively heard described in a negative context.
It is always healthy to hear both sides of an issue.
Jenny, it is the willingness of fair minded people like you to understand those who live very different lives from your own from which true peaceful coexistence is possible. Thank you.
And as you mention Rosie Kay in your essay who is indeed lovely -- have you seen her new substack and her very moving piece on her breast cancer? She is through the worst and able to dance again which is good. https://rosiekay.substack.com/p/the-three-cs
Enjoying your thought-provoking essays and the equally thought-provoking comments that follow. Since the era of social media, have come to dread Pride MONTH. An entire freaking month of queer (I use the word - not asking you to do so.) content and all the self-righteous backlash in response. A day? Great. A month? No. Wretched excess. It's exhausting.
It's excessive, especially considering how ubiquitous LGBT+ culture is right now in the mainstream--the desired visibility and representation has been achieved, in spades. The festival of kink that passes now for Pride Month isn't what Pride ever was for my generation--it was about expressing love, openly and in large numbers, in daylight--the freedom to do that was what we were proud of. We were part of the human race and got a parade to boot.
Agreed. Especially with so few knowing anything about the history of it all. It's akin to having mattress sales on Memorial Day - the meaning is lost.
So much of the negative reaction to your post can be paraphrased into "I was the superior human being who gifted you my tolerance and now I am the superior human being who rescinds that tolerance." In the FAIR crowd, I'd noticed a few people displaying this kind of arrogance but I haven't seen it so displayed so obviously until now.
Gay and Lesbian “liberation” expired around 1997, to be replaced with the noxious term “pride”.
Gay and Lesbian liberation was, is, and will always be about sex, it’s unavoidable because that’s the defining event which was legally punished, and still is.
It is an adult celebration in that it is about adults having the ability to have sex (eventually under contract of marriage) without state control.
Liberation is eroding from within.
Declaration of sex preference is social grounds for job loss, ostracism, and possibly in Canada or US arrest. This was engineered and supported by the Pride front, not the liberation front.
Objecting to forced heterosexual sex is grounds for denying lesbians right of association. This was engineered also by the Pride front, not the liberation front.
Male and female sex mimicry has nothing to do with lesbian or gay sex, yet this part of Pride front is driving all narratives.
That’s the reality.
1950’s level punishment for declaring one’s self gay or lesbian, and having the temerity to demand association on that basis.
Pride events are the the Cuckoo’s egg - pretending to be the real child of liberation, bigger and more aggressive, killing the children of the host and replacing them entirely in the end.
Those who have read my piece for FAIR, "The Case for Pride" and this follow up piece might be interested in this powerful response by Monica Harris at FAIR: https://news.fairforall.org/p/deconstructing-the-lgbtq-backlash?lli=1
I appreciated your essay on the FAIR Substack. As a hetero woman, I often wonder what my old LGBA college friends from the 90s think of today's movement. I've told my sons repeatedly that they live in a completely different world than I did.
I usually avoid the comments section, so I hadn't noticed the vitriol. I am sad when I read responses like the ones you received.
This entry was recommended to me. Thank you for writing both posts.
I am beyond dismayed at the comments on your FAIR Substack article. I am shocked. Perhaps I am naive. I've been involved with FAIR since the summer of 2021. I can't believe those comments came from actual FAIR members. Although I do know some peripheral FAIR folks did not like my involvement in the organization as a trans man. Sadly, there may now be splintering in the heterodox world along certain demarcations. Perhaps again it is my naivety or absence on social media that did not recognize this phenomenon. I truly love your witty and catty articles. Keep it up. It brings levity into the world!
Zander, FAIR and any other organization you contribute to, are lucky to have you! Listen: Carrie Fisher said it best. The truth will set you free…but first it will piss you off! Better to allow folks to expose their own biases, in my opinion. When you lift the rock, sometimes the creepy crawlies come out and I say better out than in.
Thank you, Jamie! Indeed, let the prejudice arise and show itself. Hopefully, it does not grow too large and alienate all the good people of FAIR.
“some of the… comments made me suddenly and vividly aware, after many years, that certain kinds of hate and hateful narratives are lurking just below the surface, and can be so easily conjured up”:
I see increasing numbers of antisemites and homophobes and racists and misogynists popping up in heterodox spaces. I guess they think they can find some respectability there. But there’s nothing respectable about making wild generalizations about diverse groups of people and expressing negative emotions about people you’ve never met and do not know.
We may have had four years of witnessing how vile “woke” can be, but my sense is that we are about to discover how much worse “anti-woke” can be, especially if 45 returns as 47…
We missed you on the FAIR in the Arts Townhall last night Jamie.
As a far right conservative who mostly reads religious and right tilting political commentary, your FAIR piece on Pride helped me to understand the history of a movement that I have almost exclusively heard described in a negative context.
It is always healthy to hear both sides of an issue.
I thank you for that.
Cheers!
Jenny Hatch
Jenny, it is the willingness of fair minded people like you to understand those who live very different lives from your own from which true peaceful coexistence is possible. Thank you.
I enjoyed your piece on FAIR. I always enjoy your writing. It makes me think. Please keep putting pieces up.
As luck would have it, there was a good piece about Pride in today's Telegraph -- both Simon Fanshawe who helped start Stonewall and later broke with it and Malcolm Clarke made good contributions. The title of the piece was -- How Trans fanatics tore Pride apart. I think you might find it interesting. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/17/pride-trans-activists-lgbt-debate-divided/ or https://archive.ph/o7XEg
And as you mention Rosie Kay in your essay who is indeed lovely -- have you seen her new substack and her very moving piece on her breast cancer? She is through the worst and able to dance again which is good. https://rosiekay.substack.com/p/the-three-cs